62nd Meeting of the Working Party on Phytosanitary Regulations

Prague, 2024-06-18/21

 

 

The 62nd meeting of the Working Party on Phytosanitary Regulations took place in Prague, on 2024-06-18/21. The meeting was attended by 30 participants from 18 EPPO member countries, as well as by a representative of the European Commission. The three candidates selected by the EPPO Executive Committee who will be presented to Council for the election for the position of Director-General at EPPO also attended the meeting. This EPPO Working Party directs and supervises the technical work of many EPPO Panels related to plant health. A summary of the different Panel meetings and Workshops which took place since the last meeting was presented to the Working Party (short summaries of these meetings are posted on the EPPO website). The Working Party also discussed new and revised EPPO Standards, the work programme for 2025, and made several recommendations that will be presented to the EPPO Council.

 

 

 

New and revised EPPO recommendations and Standards

The Working Party recommended that 5 new pests (including an invasive alien plant) should be added to EPPO Lists of pests recommended for regulation as quarantine pests: Chloridea virescens to be added to the EPPO A1 List of pests absent from the region; Agrilus mali, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense Tropical race 4, Toumeyella parvicornis and Zizania latifolia (plant) to be added to the EPPO A2 List of pests present in the region. For each pest, phytosanitary measures are recommended in a Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) which will be made available via the EPPO PRA platform .

 

7 new and revised Standards were considered ready to be presented for approval at Council:

  • Phytosanitary Procedures (series PM3)
    • Inspection for invasive alien plants at borders (new)
    • Inspection of growing media associated with consignments of plants for planting (new)
    • Official controls of passenger luggage at points of entry (new)

 

  • Safe use of biological control (series PM 6)
    • Import and release of non-indigenous biological control agents (revision of PM 6/2)

 

  • Diagnostic protocols for regulated pests (series PM 7)
    • Use of EPPO Diagnostic Standards (revision of PM 7/76)
    • Guidelines on the authorization of laboratories to perform diagnostic activities for regulated pests (revision of PM 7/130)

 

  • National regulatory control systems (series PM 9)
    • Solanum carolinense (new)

 

The Working Party also noted the adoption of the following Diagnostic Protocols (series PM 7) approved since its last meeting according to the specific fast-track procedure:

  • PM 7/032 Plum pox virus (revision)
  • PM 7/NEW Dendrolimus sibiricus
  • PM 7/114 Bactrocera zonata (revision)
  • PM 7/NEW Aromia bungii
  • PM 7/001 Bretziella fagacearum (revision)
  • PM 7/093 Melampsora medusae (revision)
  • PM 7/90 Anisogramma anomala (revision)
  • PM 7/023 Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. dieffenbachiae (revision)
  • PM 7/110 Xanthomonas spp. causing bacterial spot of tomato and sweet pepper (revision)

 

The Working Party recommended that the following Standards are withdrawn:

  • PM 7/9 (1) Cacoecimorpha pronubana
  • PM 7/10 (1) Cacyreus marshalli

 

 

Diagnostics

The EPPO Secretariat presented the progress made on the EPPO database on diagnostic expertise  and on the EPPO-Q-bank database. The Working Party supported the suggestion to revise PM 7/129 DNA Barcoding as an identification tool for a number of regulated pests to have an overarching and horizontal barcoding Standard and more specific ones with genus (or group) specific barcodes. The Working Party also supported the suggestion of providing supporting information for PM 7/151 Considerations for the use of high throughput sequencing in plant health diagnostics instead of developing a new Standard on HTS in virology. The Working Party approved the use of the fast-track procedure for 32 specific Diagnostic Protocols (10 new, 22 revisions).

 

 

PRA activities

The Working Party agreed that an Expert Working Groups (EWG) for PRA should be organized for one invasive alien plant, Euphorbia davidii. In addition, PRA EWGs should be organized, in order of priority, on Pseudips mexicanus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Xylotrechus pyrrhoderus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and Citrus yellow vein clearing virus (CYVCV). The pests Harringtonia lauricola (and its vectors), Cnestus mutilatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) and Pochazia shantungensis (Hemiptera: Ricaniidae) were identified as priorities for PRA reports based on national or EFSA PRAs and other documents. Improving mapping and modelling in EPPO PRAs will be further investigated through a webinar with core-members, experts and Panel members.

 

 

Phytosanitary measures

The Working Party agreed that the recommendation for listing of ToBRFV as an EPPO A2 pest should remain, and agreed with revised measures recommended to prevent its further introduction and spread in the EPPO region. The Working Party was informed about the latest changes made to guidance documents related to phytosanitary measures and PRAs. The Working Party was informed about the results of a questionnaire on the use of and need for Standards in Series PM 8 Commodity-specific phytosanitary measures and recommended that EPPO stop developing such Standards, but keep current ones available with an indication that they are no longer updated.

 

 

Biological Control Agents

The Working Party agreed with the Panel proposal to add Tamarixia dryi (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) to Standard PM 6/3 Biological control agents safely used in the EPPO region: Appendix 2 Classical biological control agents successfully established in the EPPO region; and agreed that a platform on risk assessment and other information on BCAs is developed.

 

 

Information services

An update was given on the EPPO platform on communication material , on ongoing developments in EPPO GD, EPPO Codes, as well as on the ‘datasheet’ project performed under a grant agreement between EPPO and the European Commission. This Project consists of developing/revising datasheets for 319 pests between 2020 and 2024. As of June 2024, 310 datasheets have been published in EPPO GD and a further 7 have been drafted by authors. The Working Party agreed with the plan to prepare about 10 new datasheets per year after the project has ended and to establish a list of priorities for this work. The Working Party was informed of the additions made to the Alert List since the last meeting. The Alert List draws the attention of EPPO member countries to pests possibly presenting a risk to plants in the EPPO region in order to achieve early warning.

 

 

Plant Health Links in the EPPO Region

Plant health links and collaborations with other regional plant protection organisations (RPPOs), international organisations, the EU and EFSA were discussed. Activities performed in the context of EPPO Jens-Georg Unger Plant Health Fellowship e.g. on beech leaf disease were presented and the new call that is open until the beginning of September was highlighted. A draft revised procedure for European nominations in IPPC bodies was approved.

 

 

Projects

The Working Party was updated on Euphresco’s activities, in particular the project EUPHRESCO III ´Strengthening phytosanitary research programming and collaboration: from European to global phytosanitary research coordination´ (2023-2026) which aims, among other objectives, at exploring the establishment of global phytosanitary research coordination. An update was given on other projects where EPPO is involved, including ongoing activities for the RNQP Project part 2 which will assess the RNQP status of pests mainly from the EU fruit marketing Directives.

 

 

Other business

The Working Party also discussed establishing a procedure to address conflict of interest at EPPO and preparation of a Workshop on the Future work of EPPO in November 2024 to prepare for the next Strategic Plan 2026-2030. Following the request from some participants, the candidates for the position of Director-General of EPPO each had the opportunity to briefly present themselves and answer some questions.